Quoting FCC chairman Michael Powell, a Monitor article from Thursday states, “It’s probably the most significant paradigm shift in the entire history of modern communications, since the invention of the telephone.”

What is it?

VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol. To Jane and John Doe, it’s doing on a computer what one would normally do on a phone, and for a number of privacy advocates, it could be the latest hot button issue surrounding the FCC since that body approved new rules governing media ownership. It’s also the latest wrinkle in the blanket of measures to come out of the USA Patriot Act, the monolithic anti-terror law promptly passed by Congress in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

Mr. Powell’s statement coming out of last week's FCC vote to extend wiretapping to the Internet adds, “Our support for law enforcement is unwavering; it is our goal in this proceeding to ensure that law enforcement agencies have all of the electronic surveillance capabilities that CALEA authorizes to combat crime and terrorism and support Homeland Security.”

CALEA is a 1994 law designed “to make clear a telecommunications carrier's duty to cooperate in the interception of communications for Law Enforcement purposes, and for other purposes,” and Internet, broadband, and “push-to-talk” technology now fall under its jurisdiction.

As CNET News has reported, “The vote comes five months after the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Justice Department formally asked for guaranteed wiretapping access to broadband networks. If the FCC had done nothing, wiretaps would be possible but could be more difficult and time-consuming for police to carry out.”

The battlefield where opponents inevitably will be crossing swords with the federal ruling is the US Constitution, specifically the Fourth Amendment.

The text of this amendment reads as follows:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

The CALEA legislation is incorporated into Title 47 of the US Code (the formal and up-to-date version of all US federal laws) with the chapter called “INTERCEPTION OF DIGITAL AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS”. According to this item from TechLaw Journal,

Nothing in this NPRM & DR, or the CALEA, expands the authority of law enforcement agencies to conduct surveillance. Wiretap authority, and pen register and trap and trace authority (including Internet addressing and routing information), are addressed in Title 18 (criminal code) and Title 50 (foreign intelligence surveillance). The CALEA, which is codified in Title 47 (communications), imposes requirements upon telecommunications carriers to design and modify their networks to facilitate lawfully obtained surveillance orders.

For further reference:

Small players want their share of air waves (The Christian Science Monitor)

Wiretapping legislation (EPIC)

Voice On the Net (VON) Coalition

The Age of Surveillance: The Aims and Methods of America's Political Intelligence System

Diebold, Inc. has run into a bit of a PR obstacle course of late. It seems that a report or two has linked vote tampering and vote security risks with electronic voting machines that Diebold and others manufacture. Wired.com has a report on Diebold's situation.

All of this has resulted in a legal melee, including Diebold and ISP (Internet Service Provider) Online Policy Group (OPG), over alleged infringement of copyright laws. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a "donor-supported membership organization" has stepped up to defend OPG and the Independent Media Center against the challenge of Diebold. A link to this announcement was featured on the website of the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse, a collaboration between the EFF and five universities. Its mission: "Chilling Effects aims to help you understand the protections that the First Amendment and intellectual property laws give to your online activities."

... and Some Additional Cyberlaw Thaw

In the further effort to help guide the casual observer through the maze of cyberlaw, the Franklin Pierce Law Center's IP (Intellectual Property) Mall has some very helpful resources, including access to the relevant reports on the subject authored by the Congressional Research Service.

Whether you are backgrounding a new employee, looking for an old co-worker, or checking out a CEO's connections, there is yet another database to help you do all of these things. Eliyon is a service that allows users to enter a name, and it 'crawls' the web looking for a person's 'footprints' where the name and company appears in proximity. For example, this may be appearing within press releases, news articles, or corporate web sites.